This piece previews a photo essay by Alana Paterson in Victory Journal, out soon. I wrote the text to accompany her gorgeous work. Big shouts to the US Women's National Hockey Team for striking and holding strong until they won new and fair work terms.
"The personal risk of the boycott proved real over the past two weeks as USA Hockey frantically worked to sign a fresh-faced team of strikebreakers. USA Hockey Excutive Director Dave Ogrean promised to deliver a team—any old team, it seemed—to the IHFF World Championships. That’s when not only the national team but the entire women’s hockey community delivered a hip-check to injustice: No one would sign up to lace their skates and glide across the picket line. No one would betray their role models for the sake of their own career or pleasure. Failing to recruit top-tier players from NCAA Division I and youth programs—the very programs that stand unfunded compared to boys’ youth programs, which receive more than 3.5 million dollars a year—USA Hockey had no shame moving on to recruit Division III players and at least one post-grad playing in a beer league. Even they didn’t want to play."